The government didn't decide one day that people could not eat dogs, cats, or horses. These are things that the average American petitioned to see put on the books as a law. Horses were allowed to be slaughtered up until a few years ago, when people pressed the government to stop the slaughter. As a result, horse prices have dropped to ridiculously low amounts (I sell my geese for more than I paid for my horse), and there is no longer a steady outlet for old, sick, crippled, etc, animals. That wasn't something the government decided to do on its own. It took years and years of petitioning before horses were completely removed from any menu or slaughterhouse. And _now_ some states are petitioning their government _again_ to _remove_ the law.
As has been pointed out, no one is stopping you from doing it on your property in your household. You can drink milk straight from the cow if you want to crawl under her - you just can't charge others to do the same.
People whine and huff and complain about what the government does. It is not a sinister, diabolical mastermind and, let's face it, the government really doesn't care what sort of milk you had in your cereal this morning. Or what breed chickens you will have on your table tonight. They care about being re-elected, which they can do by passing the laws that the average person wants passed (or at least by being less of a dick than the other guy running). If we want cheap food and don't care how it is made, then the government will make sure we get cheap food. If we want stricter laws on chicken eggs so no one gets sick, then we will get those laws. If those laws affect people who have chickens in the backyard, well, that sucks. But that's what the average American decided they wanted based on things they saw on the news (on that note, I blame the sensationalist tripe that passes for news these days more than the government). In order to keep people from making "dumb" decisions they have to be educated. In order to educate them, we have to have a society that cares about more than Hollywood, adorable animal captions, and Justin Beiber.
As far as I'm concerned, the government is only as smart and capable as the people it is serving.
That's why I'm so terrified.